Improvement in hinges



UNITED STATES PATENT, OFFICE.

JAMES ALFORD HOUSE, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN HINGES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 204,045, dated May 21, 1878; application filed March 15, 1878.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JAMES ALFORD HoUsE, of Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Hinges, of which the following is a specification:

My invention relates, generally, to improve- .ments in sheet-metal hinges of the class comm only known as strap-hinges, and more especially to such hinges of this class as are known to the trade as trunk-hinges.

My object is to produce a strong and an inexpensive hinge of neat appearance.

To this end my improvements consist in the peculiar form of the straps and in the completed hinge. The subject-matter claimed will hereinafter specifically be designated.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of a portion of the sheet-metal blank or stock from which the straps are punched, the dotted lines showing the form of the straps; Fig.2, a plan view of the two straps or members of a hinge as punched from the stock; and Fig. 3, a similar View of the completed hinge.

One way of forming the straps is to take a long strip or blank, A, of the proper width and of any suitable material or alloy, and cut it as represented by the dotted lines. part or single-arm strap, B, and a two-part or forked strap, C, are formed with their respective interlocking base-arms or heel-projections, b b and c c, to form the knuckles or bearings for the pin or pivot which unites the straps, as in Fig. 3. The leaf B is wide or of the full width of the stock or blank at its base D, or

A one that end adjacent the base of the bifurcated leaf C, while from its base to its outer end it corresponds in shape to the opening between the forks of the two-part strap. The forked strap is wide throughout, and is of corresponding width from its outer end to its base D, and of the same width as the base of the onearm strap. The straps are united together by curving the projections 12 b and c c, and securing the pivot-pin in place as usual. The metal is so distributed between the two straps as to make them of about equal strength and adapt them to be readily and securely fastened in place by screws passing through the perfo-- rations, (see Fig. 3,) which may be made in them either at the same time they are punched out or afterward.

I claim as of my own invention 1. A hinge having a forked strap of corresponding width from its base to its outer end, and'a one-part strap of a width at its base corresponding to that of the forked strap and with an arm the counterpart of the space between the forks of the forked strap.

2. The hinge consisting of the forked strap,

' JAMES ALFORD HOUSE.

Witnesses L. S. CATLIN, CHARLES DIMOND. 

